We’re Not Just Coping with “The Great Recession.” This Is “The Great Change.”

The Damage Wrought by the Great Big Horrendous Financialization Ka-blooie is Real.  But this was (and is) Part of a Great Change. My friends, there’s no doubt we live in interesting times. This isn’t just a recession when budget sheets show big gaps, then the economy dips into a deep lull and then comes back … Continue reading “We’re Not Just Coping with “The Great Recession.” This Is “The Great Change.””

How Can the U.S. Constitutional System Cope When Big Fracking Bucks mean Big Toxin Dumping?

With New Forms of Toxic Waste from the Fracking Bonanza Piling Up, What Must Be Done? I really like the PBS documentary mini-series Constitution USA, because it brings forward the constitutional arguments that are so relevant to the problems we face in our country today.  It explores a worthy cross-section of important legal/constitutional debates with … Continue reading “How Can the U.S. Constitutional System Cope When Big Fracking Bucks mean Big Toxin Dumping?”

Bitesized History: the Code Noir and Mercantilism in Jewish Mobile, Alabama

Tidbits of Colonial Mobile’s Economic and Legal History Through a 19th century Jewish Lens The rare book “A History of the Jews of Mobile,” a brief monograph published by Springhill Avenue Temple rabbi Alfred Geiger Moses in 1876 on the Jewish history of my hometown Mobile, AL, and now available online, records some fascinating facts.  I’ll … Continue reading “Bitesized History: the Code Noir and Mercantilism in Jewish Mobile, Alabama”

Turning Around America’s “Food Deserts”

Tackling the problem: two videos about creative solutions The last time I wrote about food and food policy, it was in the context of the invisible fist… commenting on one of the most Orwellian stories to date, the brutal closure of raw food sellers by SWAT teams enforcing draconian regulations against non-corporate unpasteurized milk and cheese. … Continue reading “Turning Around America’s “Food Deserts””

Beijing’s Marshall Plan for the United States

So, I’ve been considering the real causes of “red state” radicalism, and wrote an entire post on my attempts to grok the rapidly changing political landscape. I learned a great deal from my investigation, which you can read here.  But I want to go deeper on the economic roots of the situation, so I’m writing … Continue reading “Beijing’s Marshall Plan for the United States”

Living in Zomerica

How I’ve Changed Since Moving to New York City or… Living in Zomerica I started out and made my name as an activist in Alabama, where the left is deeply influenced by Martin Luther King Jr. I always spoke in the language of Biblical and , sometimes overtly, very much in the tradition of the … Continue reading “Living in Zomerica”

World Trade Center, 2010

WHAT DO WE WANT? WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW! My 9/11 anniversary post is focusing on the new WTC towers in the works now. Click here for new photos of the construction. We want that first tower up ASAP! (first dubbed the “Freedom Tower,” then changed back to the original “One World Trade Center” … Continue reading “World Trade Center, 2010”

Financial Advice From Scrooge McDuck (1967)

My friend Dan will love this. In Scrooge McDuck’s first **named** appearance in a cartoon (his first actual appearance was in Spirit of ’43) he teaches Huey, Dewey and Louie about the economy, from the origins of the types of the currency to taxes to inflation, budgeting and investing. It’s good stuff. Great primer on … Continue reading “Financial Advice From Scrooge McDuck (1967)”

More NYC Hospitals Lost To Economic Crisis

New York City’s hospitals, already strained and overcrowded, are experiencing a spree of closings, felled by the economic crisis. St. John’s Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital have gone bankrupt and boarded up the entrances.  This leaves Queens-dwellers with few options, and those few options in an awful overcrowding situation. “It’s a real failure of … Continue reading “More NYC Hospitals Lost To Economic Crisis”

Public Rage At Banks And Bailout Expressed in New Laws

Americans are fed up with banks double dipping off them, pulling down billions in bailouts from taxpayers, while also squeezing us with increased fees and interest. The backlash is now being expressed in Congress: BAILED OUT BANKS U.S. banks that issue credit cards have received more than $120 billion in taxpayer funds since October, money … Continue reading “Public Rage At Banks And Bailout Expressed in New Laws”

What Went Wrong In The Economy

I’ve had an email and a few message board posts asking me “what the…” is going on with the economy.  I’m not an economist (I was an English major) but I’m incredibly curious, and I read a lot. Here’s my take: A big part of this whole Wall Street collapse are something called “adjustable-rate mortgages” … Continue reading “What Went Wrong In The Economy”

Observing The Economic Crisis First Hand

From everything I see in the media, it looks grim, like we’re deep into a Great Recession. There are bread lines of sorts forming at food banks, and charities send 18-wheelers to small towns whose sole employers have closed shop.  At the same time, states like Georgia have all but ended assistance to the poor … Continue reading “Observing The Economic Crisis First Hand”

Providing A Soft, Pillowy Landing For Stupid CEOs?

AP: Economists see financial bailout as necessary O RLY?? It’s hardly the soup kitchen for people at the very top. The chairman of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, still has his mansion in Greenwich, CT, his oceanfront estate on Jupiter Island in FL, and his Park Avenue co-op in Manhattan. Many at Lehman blame Fuld for … Continue reading “Providing A Soft, Pillowy Landing For Stupid CEOs?”

Inexorable Cycle of History?

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” — Ecclesiastes 1:9-14I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Are the events shaping the U.S. just a part of an inexorable repeating cycle of history? In the 1920s the wealth inequality grew to … Continue reading “Inexorable Cycle of History?”

Growing Backlash Against Inequality

Growing Backlash Against Inequality Jim Webb Tackles The Problem of Inequality In my last post, I talked about how Alabama shows that the lowest taxes don’t translate into the most wealth; we are one of the poorest states and at the bottom of nearly every category, nearly third-world. The huge, largely untaxed wealth at the … Continue reading “Growing Backlash Against Inequality”